The adsorption of acetic acid on Au/Pd(1 1 1) alloy surfaces

The adsorption of acetic acid is studied as a function of gold content by temperature-programmed desorption and reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy on Au/Pd(1 1 1) alloys formed by depositing 5 ML of gold onto a Pd(1 1 1) surface and heating to various temperatures. For mole fractions of gold greater than ∼0.5, acetic acid adsorbs molecularly and desorbs intact with an activation energy of ∼52 kJ/mol. This acetic acid is present as catemers, where the nature of the catemer is found to depend on gold concentration. When the relative gold concentration is less than ∼0.33, adsorption of acetic acid at 80 K and heating to ∼207 K forms η¹-acetate species on the surface. On further heating, these can either thermally decompose to eventually evolve hydrogen, water and oxides of carbon, or form η²-acetate species, where the coverage of reactively formed η²-acetate species increases with decreasing gold concentration in the near surface region.